Some say the continent is betraying its ideals by trying to appease fundamentalists.

BERLIN — In Europe’s cafes, the newspapers are as wrinkled as always, the conversations still veer toward the abstract, but tempers these days are riled.

Artists and influential leftists are warning that the rise of radical Islam is threatening the tradition of European liberalism. Theater directors, cartoonists and writers say the continent is betraying its identity by practicing self-censorship aimed at appeasing a fundamentalist Islam they believe is determined to impose its will on free speech and creativity.

A cultural attack by Islam against the West is under way, to which Europe is responding with fear and backtracking. In Regensburg, the pope showed the way ahead: no to the violence of Islam; renew European culture.

Thanks to the legalization of abortion, most nations in Europe are experiencing severe underpopulation problems. Had abortion not been legal, the nations likely wouldn’t have had the same issues. A new report from the OECD shows that all European nations recorded birth rates of more than 1.3 children per woman in 1990. But, by 2002, 15 counties had rates below 1.3 children per woman, and six countries had rates between 1.3 and 1.4 children per woman. A rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain a population. Ireland, one of the few European nations where abortion is illegal, has the highest fertility rate of any European nation. Portugal, which also prohibits abortion, is in the top half. Malta, another pro-life nation, is in the middle of the list of counties.

PARIS — A French teacher hiding from Islamist death threats says he has been abandoned by the Education Ministry and has to arrange for his own safe houses when police bodyguards move him every two days.

BERLIN; AND BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA – Europe, it seems, is having a bit of an identity crisis. As leaders from Budapest to Barcelona vie to guide the continent’s forward course, the needle on Europe’s moral compass is bouncing frenetically between two increasingly polarized camps.

The following is an excerpt from Londonistan, a new book by Melanie Phillips.

Britain is in denial. Having allowed the country to turn into a global hub of the Islamic jihad without apparently giving it a second thought, the British establishment is still failing even now — despite the wake-up calls of both 9/11 and the London bomb attacks of 2005 — to acknowledge what it is actually facing and take the appropriate action. Instead, it is deep into a policy of appeasement of the phenomenon that threatens it, throwing sops to both radical Islamism and the Muslim community in a panic-stricken attempt to curry favour and buy off the chances of any further attacks. This disastrous policy ignores the first law of terrorism which is that it preys on weakness. The only way to defeat it is through strength — the strength of a response based on absolute consistency and moral integrity, which arises in turn from the strength of belief in the values that are being defended. By choosing instead the path of least resistance, Britain is advertising its fundamental weakness and is thus not only greatly enhancing the danger to itself but is also enfeebling the alliance in the defence of the West.

PARIS – Al Fath Mosque is in a scruffy immigrant neighborhood not far from the neon-lit kitsch of Pigalle. On Friday afternoons the mosque is jammed, and the overflow of worshippers – all men – spills into the streets.

(NEW YORK — C-FAM) The Latvian Parliament has decided to exxclude a ban on sexual orientation discrimination from its Anti-Discrimination Bill, despite a directive from the European Union. Although implementation of the legislation was a condition for Latvia’s accession to the Union in 2004, Latvian lawmakers have rejected it.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the legalization of child pornography and sex with animals, sparking widespread outrage.

A new law may force nations in the European Union to accept same-sex unions from other nations. The European Free Movement Directive entered into legal force last week and it requires EU member states to grant residency to homosexuals who are not citizens if their partner is a citizen of an EU country.